I know it is a sequel to The Firm but are we talking about the Grisham book or Pollack film? And although it seems there will be 22 episodes will this be a mini-series or tv series? I am re-reading the book right now and have never seen the movie. Josh Lucas looks nothing like Tom Cruise.
sharethe movie. can't *beep* wait for it. love the book and movie. gonna love this.
shareDoesn't seem to be a sequel to either, in the book Mitch and his wife took the mob's money and went on the lamb. In the movie, he gave the FBI files that showed they were overbilling their clients, but didn't go on the record about the mob connections. They didn't go into the federal witness protection program in either version.
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from the plot summary:
After a difficult decade, which INCLUDED a stay in the Federal Witness Protection Program
so they were sailing around the carribean. It was never indicated in the book how long they sailed through the carribean. I guess the series implies that they did end up getting witness protection despite being fugitives.
Wasn't his name Mitch before Witness Protection? Didn't he change his name? The mob will probably not have a tough time finding him if he and his brother are using their birth names. I am totally confused by this new series. I saw the movie and read the book. Not one of Grisham's better books.
shareIt seems to follow the book. In the book Mitch takes the money and runs and lives a happy life with his wife.
It's been a long time since I've seen the movie, but I remember Tom Cruise giving Ed Harris the tapes back and Ed asked why he was helping the FBI. Cruise claimed because he got his life back, which wouldn't happen if he was in Witness Protection.
In the movie, he decided not to turn over his client's files so that he wouldn't be disbarred, and be in trouble with the mob, he just pointed the FBI to the overbilling, which would still bring the firm down.
After reading an article about it in USA Today, they seem to be saying it's more a sequel to the movie. I guess they're making it so Mitch changed his mind at some point and did go into the witness protection program.
The movie was based off the book.
shareShould I read the book? I am just coming off Harry Potter and need another great book to read
"I'm never pleased with anything, I'm a perfectionist, it's part of who I am."
(Michael Jackson)
I've read only 5 books in my life...well I've only VOLUNTARILY read 5 books in my life and 'The Firm' was one of them. Damn-good-read.
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Plus, I thought that the book was far, far superior to the film.
That's a shame. You're missing out.
shareYou should try some of his other books like the Rainmaker or the Runaway Jury. The Firm was actually one of his crappier books. Just finished the Litigators and it was not too bad either. Kind of funny.
shareHarold Carter: Did you watch the pilot? The flashback explains how they ended up in witness protection. Seems to be a sequel to the movie based on how they returned to Boston not planning on going into witness protection but after he was almost killed and with Abby pregnant had no choice
sharethis is a great show which means it will probably be cancelled reminds me of Murder One one story for the whole season, made you keep coming back, which only got 2 seasons what a SHAME probably be replaced by some more reality crap says a lot about this country gotta appeal to the least common denominator(ie 1 tooth southerners and their sister/wife, sorry to sound bitter). They always talk about middle America but guess what thats only about 20% .LA has more people than all the Rocky Mountain states combined thanks for TNT FX USA networks great shows and they give them time to build just think if The Closer was on abc nbc or cbs it would be cx mid way but on TNT its in its 6th season don't watch the majors and they will get the message ain't cable great
shareThe book is awesome, definitely read!
share"The movie was based off the book."
If you say so. Loosely at best.
Actually, the book and movie had very different endings. The series is picking up where the movie left off.
*** Spoiler Alert ***
In the book, Mitch, Abbey and Ray are hiding out in the Caymens after Mitch left videotaped depositions in a hotel in Miami for the FBI to find.
In the movie, Mitch provides only one document that shows the firm Bendini, Lambert & Locke had overbilled the clients. Mitch and Abby stay in the country while Ray remains at sea with the documents the FBI originally wanted.
The series picks up where Mitch and Abby are leaving the witness protection program ten years later. In a flashback sequence, we learn that ten years earlier, Mitch started a private law firm, Kinross & Clark. One day, a client of the new firm is shot by a sniper out in the open. Once Mitch and Abby are taken are in a police station and are safe, Agent Wayne Tarrance meets up with them and explains that they will need to go into witness protection since Mitch is targeted for a hit. Tarrance then explains that even though Mitch only provided a document that didn't implicate the Chicago mob in any way, the FBI were able to get the information from cleaning up the now abandoned Bendini, Lambert & Locke office building. In the present, Mitch and Abby were able to leave witness protection since the crime boss died in jail. However, the son of the crime boss is looking to avenge the father's imprisonment.
it seems to me that it is continuing pretty closely to the movie plot, although it is strange to have the same characters look so different they are good actors so I'm sure I'll adjust. The best was Tammy, I knew her character immediately! lol
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It's a sequel to the book.
Half of the point of Mitch's whole plan in the movie was that he worked the whole thing out that he delivered something of value to the feds (the entire corrupt law firm of Bendini, Lambert and Locke) and the Moroltos (the knowledge that their own private law firm was ripping them off on the overbilling).
Thus, the feds, while unhappy they didn't get the big fish (the Moroltos) nonetheless had busted a pretty big criminal operation (BL&L) in its own right, and the Moroltos got rid of a law firm which was ripping them off to the tune of millions of dollars.
Plus Mitch was barred by legal ethics from ever disclosing any knowledge of the Moroltos' activities beyond what they acknowledged in the court statements. Plus if Mitch ever did turn up dead the Moroltos would automatically be right at the top of the suspect list.
So in the movie, at least theoretically Mitch and Abby could continue living life in the open without worrying somebody was out to kill them every time they opened the door.
The only party to the whole deal who would be out to get Mitch would be the partners in BL&L who would end up going to jail, but most of them (i.e. Hal Holbrook) would probably be too old to do anything about it after they got out. (The younger associates like Lamar might be a different story).
In the book, Mitch diverts money directly from the Moroltos, so they would be out to rub him out. And they wouldn't "get over it" in 10 years, or 15 years or 40 years. The fact the Moroltos are hell-bent to rub him out shows it's a sequel to the book.
If it was a sequel to the book, the Moroltos would probably keep tabs on him to make sure he didn't suddenly develop some incentive to start telling the feds stuff they didn't already know, but other than that they would have no incentive to hunt him down and kill him.
PS, Lucas doesn't look much like Cruise, but he is trying to act like him and adopt his mannerisms from "The Firm." Molly Parker looks nothing at all whatsoever like Jeanne Tripplehorn -- when she appears on camera, somebody has to yell out "Abby" so everyone remembers who she's supposed to be.
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4) You ever seen Superman $#$# his pants? Case closed.
If it was a sequel to the book, they wouldn't be having money problems.
At the end of the book he was a fugitive from the FBI so obviously didn't go into witness protection.
There is a point in the pilot where he's talking to the FBI about going into witness protection. He says the Morolto's shouldn't be after him because he only gave up the firm for over billing. The book has nothing to do with Over Billing.
I say it's more of a sequel to the Movie.
I agree that it is a sequel to the movie, not book. In the movie, Mitch proved the overbilling of clients, which led to mail fraud by the firm, so he didn't have to divulge client-confidential secrets. Like the previous post says, there wasn't any talk about overbilling in the book. That's why it was based on the movie.
Mitch did not go into Witness Protection in the book or movie. If you remember at the end of the movie, he and Abbey are just driving off back home (which is Boston) so they can start a new life.
In the new series, they flash back to when Mitch and Abbey are just recently back in Boston, probably a few weeks after the events of the movie too place. They are not in Witness Protection at that point. Mitch is approached by the US Marshals because they think Mitch and his family are in danger and want him to go into Witness Protection. Mitch is strongly against it until he finds out that Abbey is pregant, so they decides that Witness Protection is the best thing for them.
yeah, but in the movie there was no real need for Mitch and Abby to go into witness protection -- not only had he not sold out the Moroltos, he had saved them from being ripped off for millions by BL&L without exposing them to legal liability. Plus he hadn't screwed them out of any money -- all the money came from the feds.
Hell, in the course of about 10 days he had probably saved them more money than BL&L would normally do in a whole year.
In fact, if anything, in the movie I got the vibe that the older Morolto brother (Joe Vitorelli as Joey Morolto) was kind of thinking, "this kid's got balls, he might be the kind of guy we could use."
When he gives Mitch the "Yasser Arafat" line, he kind of nods toward him like, "this kid knows what's going on. He's too smart to rat us out."
In fact, that would be a cool way for the TV series to tie back into the movie -- the Moroltos aren't after Mitch because they want to KILL him, they want him to JOIN them. As their version of Tom Hagen.
It would be in many ways like the original recruiting/courtship parts of the movie, only this time Mitch would know full well ahead of time what he was getting into. (And Abby too.)
Of course that would lead to "The Temptation of Mitch McDeere" episodes which would get cliched and repetitive pretty quickly.
You could go to that well about once in the run of the series then you'd have to move on -- maybe have Agent Wayne Tarrance, now Assistant FBI Director Wayne Tarrance, trying to get him to join THEM.
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4) You ever seen Superman $#$# his pants? Case closed.
It was explained in the first episode that Mitch gave the FBI enough evidence to be able to search BL&L's building and go through their files. This lead to the Morolto family being taken down and that's why they would want to kill him so he went into witness protection.
shareAll right, I didn't see all of the first episode (about the last hour of it).
But that explanation is utterly stupid -- wouldn't the murders of,
1) the four BL&L attorneys (Kosinski and Hodges, the other two killed earlier)
2) Avery Tolar;
3) The Nordic Man;
4) Larry Abanks' son;
5) Eddie Lomax;
... have given the feds plenty of reason to go tearing through the BL&L files without any more help from Mitch?
Eight murders. The feds would have turned the whole BL&L office building upside down and gone over it with a microscope without any more help from Mitch. Mitch wouldn't have had to say another word.
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4) You ever seen Superman $#$# his pants? Case closed.
OK -- I went back and watched the WHOLE pilot episode last night so instead of guessing about what I THINK the show is, or should be, about, here it is:
1) In the opening credits, it is stated, "Based on the BOOK by John Grisham."
However,
2) in the early moments of the pilot, Mitch discusses the overbilling-scheme plotline -- which did not appear in the book, it was exclusive to the movie -- so obviously the TV series is intended to also reflect the events of the movie.
Then,
The attempted-assassination incident which spurs Mitch, Abby (and Ray and Tammy) to go into witness protection, happened "ten years ago" from PRESENT DAY, presumably in 2001-02, not immediately after the events of "The Firm."
Therefore the original events of "The Firm" apparently took place in 1992-93 (when the movie was set), Mitch and Abby moved back to Boston and lived fairly uneventful lives for the next 8-9 years before the Moroltos decided they needed to be rubbed out.
But still it doesn't make sense -- with eight unsolved murders hanging loose around the Moroltos and BB&L, the feds wouldn't have needed any evidence from Mitch to go in and turn the BB&L building upside down. And it would have happened a lot faster than 8-9 years later.
And really, they probably could have gotten off scott free anyway -- unless one of the BB&L senior partners like Oliver Lambert (Hal Holbrook) had decided to start talking and give up the Moroltos, the murders probably couldn't be tagged on them anyway. Mitch McDeere sure didn't have any direct evidence they had ordered murders -- all he knew was where their money was.
He knew it seemed like extremely strange coincidences how all those 8 people ended up dead but he never had any real conclusive evidence the Moroltos ordered any of it. And the feds knew that already.
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4) You ever seen Superman $#$# his pants? Case closed.
I just reread the book and there is no way that this series is following the same timeline as the books. The McDeeres could never return to the states in the book.
shareI don't think we can tie an exact year to the events of the movie and the TV series. It makes more sense that the TV series picks up ten years after the events of the movie, whatever year that was, since Mitch's daughter is now about ten years old. Otherwise, if the TV series had to take place 19 years after the movie, the daughter would be an adult finishing up the sophmore year in college!
The events of the TV series in the first flashback sequence, where Mitch and Abby are in Boston, takes place within a year of the evets of the movie. That way, their daughter who was born right before they went into witness protection is now ten years old.
Why are so many people having trouble with this? It really isn't that difficult.
This show is a sequel to the movie, not the book. In the movie, Mitch exposes BL&L's over billing and serves up a platter of mail fraud charges to the FBI. This way The Firm is taken down and Mitch doesn't have to reveal client files and being disbarred in the process. As is explained in the pilot, after Mitch does this the FBI tears through the BL&L office and uses documents they find to prosecute the Chicago mob. Now, whether or not Mitch can legally or ethically testify against the Moroltos doesn't really matter. They were angry at Mitch for getting the ball rolling. It was his exposing of the over billing that eventually led to the FBI's case against the mob. Sure, at the end of the movie the mob guys seem to be impressed by Mitch's balls, but what they didn't forsee was that this would start a chain of events that would end with the Moroltos in prison. Doesn't matter that Mitch technically didn't do anything to implicate them or that they had no logical incentive to kill him, the mob holds grudges and they love to get even. A year after the events of the movie while in Boston, they try to kill Mitch, just because. To avoid getting killed, movie Mitch and his family enter witness protection.
As for why the FBI didn't do this before, after 8 murders, they simply couldn't. As is explained in the movie, the FBI doesn't have any evidence whatsoever, it's all just theory before Mitch enters the picture. Pay attention to Ed Harris' choice of words in that diner scene. He keeps saying "we believe" and I don't think he mentions evidence once. Seeing as to how law firms are protected by some very strict privilege laws, the FBI couldn't just look through the place until they got something, anything, that concretely tied The Firm to a crime. Enter Mitch's evidence of over billing.
Loose ends? As for using their real names, I'm sure they had fake names when they were in witness protection, but after the head of the Morolto crime family died in prison, they thought they were safe enough to leave witness protection and go back to using their real names. Although, it wouldn't be so outrageous that while in witness protection, they used their real first names but changed their surname. We don't really know and it doesn't really matter either way. What does matter is that they feel safe from the mob now, and every day the mob stays back while the Morolto son devises his plan, they feel even safer. Hell, I believe in one episode Mitch says something along the lines of "if the mob was still after us they would have killed us by now."
Even though all this exposition that bridged the 10-year gap between the events of the movie and the TV series only lasted like 5 minutes in the pilot, it was pretty easy to follow if you've seen both the movie and the first episode.
thank god who wants to watch a series with that nut job Tom Cruise maybe he'll take his spaceship and join the mormans with chit romney sorry couldn't resist
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